Believing then that this real self can really gain or lose real things or experiences which have real qualities, grasping and aversion, and thus dukkha, arise inevitably.

typically we do not deliberately choose our way of looking at any situation. It is imposed on us, rather, by the habits of the mind.

Sometimes all we are able to change in a situation is the view; the other conditions may now be past, or may not be in our control.

Believing then that this real self can really gain or lose real things or experiences which have real qualities, grasping and aversion, and thus dukkha, arise inevitably.

Emptiness teachings and ways of looking are only a smaller subset of the larger set of tools for freedom that is the whole of the Dharma.

If it seems that emotions such as grief or sadness need more attention and care in the present, is it possible to do that without neglecting the sense of freedom and strength?

that is the great and beautiful work of the path. Insight meditation, indeed perhaps even the whole of the Dharma, could be conceived, very broadly, as the cultivation of ways of looking that lessen dukkha, that liberate.

What is more necessary is that they sustain relatively steadily for more than a few minutes. Then we can learn to sustain them for longer.

Seeing emptiness opens compassion The concern that emptiness implies a kind of moral nihilism, an attitude that ‘we can do whatever we want because everything is empty’, and that following this path we will not care for the plight of others and the world, we can also test through our own practice. But we will find that as insight into these